Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.33 Beta 3 available

[GoNz0]

running 3.0.0.4.374.33_beta3b on RT-N66U after a factory reset, I use the country codes GB but with this if I select a channel on 2.4ghz above 8 it defaults to channel 1.

set the nvram set regulation_domain=GB to nvram set regulation_domain=EU and the problem went away, this didn't happen on the previous release?

 

[RMerlin]

Ok, did as you instructed. I ran 2 Putty sessions, one with watch free -m and the other doing a tail -f minidlna.log.

Interesting. Swap didn't change much, free memory wobbled between ~80000 and 61000, but buffers seemed to slowly creep down (from ~4000 then getting down to around 200) around the 200 buffers mark I saw the first malloc fail.

In looking at /var/cache - there is no minidlna file. The closest would be a file "songs.gdb".

Hope this helps!

That's odd. Running out of buffer space shouldn't have any impact, unless I misunderstand how Linux allocates memory.

I really have no other idea, sorry. 60 MB should be more than enough to analyze an image I would assume.

 

[RMerlin]

running 3.0.0.4.374.33_beta3b on RT-N66U after a factory reset, I use the country codes GB but with this if I select a channel on 2.4ghz above 8 it defaults to channel 1.

set the nvram set regulation_domain=GB to nvram set regulation_domain=EU and the problem went away, this didn't happen on the previous release?

No idea. I don't support playing with regions.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

The SDK5 build is the exact same FW code as the regular build, except for the wireless driver, switch driver, HW acceleration code (CTF), and the other closed-source components from Broadcom. That means you get no support for the XBox optimisation switch, and no HW PPPoE acceleration.

I don't own a Xbox and im not sure what HW pppoe is can you explain ? I do know the SDK6 firmwares don't work good here I cant even connect outside to the 2.4 G band and that not acceptable here. Even my roku box in the bedroom about 50 feet from the router has droped from full signal to one bar also unacceptable. Any ideas ? But I would like to thank you for all your hard work and effort.

 

[RMerlin]

I don't own a Xbox and im not sure what HW pppoe is can you explain ? I do know the SDK6 firmwares don't work good here I cant even connect outside to the 2.4 G band and that not acceptable here. Even my roku box in the bedroom about 50 feet from the router has droped from full signal to one bar also unacceptable. Any ideas ? But I would like to thank you for all your hard work and effort.

HW acceleration for PPPoE means that people using PPPoE connections will be able to reach higher speed, as the work won't be entirely handled by the CPU.

No idea why some people are having such drastic drop, while others are seeing minor drops (I even had one user report he was getting BETTER throughput with SDK6 over SDK5). I only saw a few dBs difference here between SDK5 and SDK6, and I'm still able to cover the whole apartment with it - my laptop was connecting just fine through three walls.

This is something folks will just have to live with for now - this is totally out of my hands.

 

[JGrana]

That's odd. Running out of buffer space shouldn't have any impact, unless I misunderstand how Linux allocates memory.

I really have no other idea, sorry. 60 MB should be more than enough to analyze an image I would assume.

Agreed. I never saw swap grow to it's max size (far from it), free memory looked good under the load - buffers went very low - but...

Maybe Asus can shed some light ;-)

No worries, I will setup a script to start minidlna 1.0.25. It runs fine.

Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 22229]

HW acceleration for PPPoE means that people using PPPoE connections will be able to reach higher speed, as the work won't be entirely handled by the CPU.

No idea why some people are having such drastic drop, while others are seeing minor drops (I even had one user report he was getting BETTER throughput with SDK6 over SDK5). I only saw a few dBs difference here between SDK5 and SDK6, and I'm still able to cover the whole apartment with it - my laptop was connecting just fine through three walls.

This is something folks will just have to live with for now - this is totally out of my hands.

Im using Comcast for internet I don't have any other options here so with no Xbox and no pppoe connection I guess im good to go with your older firmware. Thanks for explaining that. Also wanted to point out I get the same speeds through the N66R as I do hard wired to the modem with no router. 58Down 11.5 Up.

 

[brummygit]

I'm seeing a strange problem on my RT-N66U which I've also seen on the last couple of Merlin versions, but not on the stock 720 build.

When I run a speed test I get big drops where traffic doesn't pass, and then it resumes as normal. This doesn't happen on stock Asus builds.

You can see one example looking at the green line below

 

[Txdk]

I'm seeing a strange problem on my RT-N66U which I've also seen on the last couple of Merlin versions, but not on the stock 720 build.

When I run a speed test I get big drops where traffic doesn't pass, and then it resumes as normal. This doesn't happen on stock Asus builds.

You can see one example looking at the green line below

have you tried other speedtests to see if it is the speedtest from thinkbroadband thats flawed

 

[PrivateJoker]

FWIW here are my results using that test, on my RT-N66 running 3.0.0.4.374.32 (Merlin build), from the US.

 

[Quiller]

I updated my AC66U to the beta3 fw coming from the beta1 fw and I noticed that my asus AICloud (iOS) can no longer show the folders on the two attached USB drives. It can can connect to my router and show the drives that are connected, but when I click on a drive I get only a perpetual cog with a abort button.

My computer can access the files on my attached drives without any problems. It could be an iOS 7 issue, but I'm curious if anyone else had the same problem.

 

[jlake]

I updated my AC66U to the beta3 fw coming from the beta1 fw and I noticed that my asus AICloud (iOS) can no longer show the folders on the two attached USB drives. It can can connect to my router and show the drives that are connected, but when I click on a drive I get only a perpetual cog with a abort button.

My computer can access the files on my attached drives without any problems. It could be an iOS 7 issue, but I'm curious if anyone else had the same problem.

I have had the same thing happen with stock firmware. To fix it, try disabling Aicloud on router, then delete your android /iOS app and then reinstall iOS app and just set it up again. It only takes 2 minutes.

 

[speedingcheetah]

I still find stock firmware much more stable and a better performer on my AC56U.....

I just wish I could get the status page and the rest be all stock..that info page in very nice....why the devil doesn't asus include that page anyway?!

 

[RMerlin]

I still find stock firmware much more stable and a better performer on my AC56U.....

In what area?

 

[pulp]

Hi Pulp, Try changing bandwidth to 20 mhz and then change to channel 1.

GENIUS!!!!!! Thank you so much JPAC for the fix and Merlin for Beta3.

I was disappointed at first when my re-DL of Beta3 still got me stuck on channel 6 even after rebooting, clearing cache, using other browsers and *almost* re-signed to a Restore until I remebered JPAC's suggestion:

#BOOM!!!


EDIT*** Watching Breaking Bad!

 

[DanielCoffey]

I would like to report that 33_b3 is working perfectly for me with no significant drop in wireless strength and no installation issues.

Although I live in an urban area that is highly congested in the 2.4GHz band, I am practically alone in the 5GHz at the moment so all my main devices are in that band.

After a full factory reset and upgrading to 33_b3 I was able to get a Speedtest result of 93.75/10.71 out of my Virgin media 120/10 package at a distance of 8m (direct line of sight, no walls) with the 5GHz set to 20/40 - Auto.

Nice work and thank you.

 

[Quiller]

Can't read folders with AiCloud

I have had the same thing happen with stock firmware. To fix it, try disabling Aicloud on router, then delete your android /iOS app and then reinstall iOS app and just set it up again. It only takes 2 minutes.

Tried this a couple of times, but it didn't work. So I put flashed 3.0.0.4.374.33_beta1 back to the AC66U and AiCloud is working normally again. Don't know what the reason is, maybe Merlin does.

Since I don't have clients yet that can connect to the 5Ghz, I can only say that the 2.4Ghz performs worse with the beta3 than the beta1 firmware on the AC66U. I can't give you db's, but it's noticeable.

I have an EA-N66 that's positioned upside down two floors up in the attic and that thing has a much stronger signal than the AC66U. When I'm downstairs I get the same download speed from my EA-N66 (around 38Mbps) as from my AC66U on my iPhone, but when I go upstairs the AC66U isn't able to give me the same speed as when I'm downstairs. They use different channels by the way.

Why can't the AC66U output the same signal strength and speed as my EA-N66.

 

[SkyNet]

I can only say that the 2.4Ghz performs worse with the beta3 than the beta1 firmware on the AC66U.

Well, yes there's something wrong with channels in this firmware. Changed combination of channels at 40 MHz for the worse for me. Busy channels...

 

[speedingcheetah]

In what area?

Overall.

In my testing, I get better transfer speeds, both wifi and lan with stock....when i was using beta 1, the web config pages sometimes failed to load, or partially loaded. And the issue of the router getting stuck in 20mhz mode....and adjusting the channels made things worse...and at one point my lan transfer speed dropped very low....had to use recovery to stock. Been running perfectly ever since. with stock.

the AC56u is quite new...so I understand things are still being hammered out.

Personally, I would like to have a stripped down version of Asus wrt. Like other custom firmwares have slim builds and full featured builds. I often find slimmed down versions to preform better. Or...at least....a build that is pure stock with only one modification, the nice detailed Status page that is included in the Merlin builds.

(does anyone know if tomato is available for the AC56U?)

Slightly off topic:

The AC56U with stock firmware seems to fluctuate alot when transferring files over wfi. Most of the routers I have tested in the last few years do this with stock firmware. My Cisco e300 did this, until I installed Toastman tomato build....and also on My Asus N56U with Padavan firmware I definitely noticed a performance boost over stock. That router me gave consistent wifi and lan transfer speed.....none of this fluctuating that the AC56U does...though it does burst at higher speeds...it seems to need to ramp up to full speed....when i transfer a 1gb file...it starts out at about 5MB's and goes up to 25-40MB's after several seconds....(you can see the line graph in win 8 file copy slant up and have many peaks and dips)...on my N56U, it started at about 20MB-24MB's and stayed at that speed the entire transfer...(nice straight line graph)..

 

[Sky1111]

Overall.

In my testing, I get better transfer speeds, both wifi and lan with stock....when i was using beta 1, the web config pages sometimes failed to load, or partially loaded. And the issue of the router getting stuck in 20mhz mode....and adjusting the channels made things worse...and at one point my lan transfer speed dropped very low....had to use recovery to stock. Been running perfectly ever since. with stock.

the AC56u is quite new...so I understand things are still being hammered out.

Personally, I would like to have a stripped down version of Asus wrt. Like other custom firmwares have slim builds and full featured builds. I often find slimmed down versions to preform better. Or...at least....a build that is pure stock with only one modification, the nice detailed Status page that is included in the Merlin builds.

(does anyone know if tomato is available for the AC56U?)

Slightly off topic:

The AC56U with stock firmware seems to fluctuate alot when transferring files over wfi. Most of the routers I have tested in the last few years do this with stock firmware. My Cisco e300 did this, until I installed Toastman tomato build....and also on My Asus N56U with Padavan firmware I definitely noticed a performance boost over stock. That router me gave consistent wifi and lan transfer speed.....none of this fluctuating that the AC56U does...though it does burst at higher speeds...it seems to need to ramp up to full speed....when i transfer a 1gb file...it starts out at about 5MB's and goes up to 25-40MB's after several seconds....(you can see the line graph in win 8 file copy slant up and have many peaks and dips)...on my N56U, it started at about 20MB-24MB's and stayed at that speed the entire transfer...(nice straight line graph)..

LOL - I see another person feels that N56U + Padavan has superior wifi performance to AC56U - at least on 2.4GHz
Yes fluctuations are common on AC56U - honestly I gave up 2.4GHz.

Unlike a PC, where you can install wifi drivers separately, we are at ASUS's mercy - and there is no easy way of trying same base firmware + different drivers.

Only God knows when AC68U will arrive to Canada... hopefully by the end of October... and hopefully BCM4360 (or whatever they used for 2.4) actually works... from now on I will never ever buy a router which is 2R2T!